Back in the USSR - Week 1 - Romina Vanhove

Hello everybody!

Today I’m going to tell you all about our experience in Belarus, at least the political side of what we’ve seen there. Belarus is a presidential republic, what means that they have a president as leader. Since 1994 the iron-rule president of Belarus is Alexander Lukashenko. Lukashenko promotes himself as a man of the people. Though Belarus is a democratic republic with a president, a lot of western countries see Alexander Lukashenko as a dictator. While taking a tour around Minsk, we asked our guide if she would describe her president as a dictator? She whispered yes and said that we should be careful using such a words out on the streets. The police is always in the neighborhood, and they really don’t like hearing such a things.

While we were taking our tour around Minsk, there was a song constantly playing in my head. I could only think about the beetles’ song, back in the USSR. Though Belarus may be a democratic republic, while wandering and travelling here, we couldn’t stop thinking this isn’t a free country. Even our two experiences with the police prove that this isn’t a free country. Now you’re probably wondering, experiences with the police? Well while taking the tour of Minsk with our guide the police stopped us twice during the course of the tour just to see who we are, and what we were up to. Our guide then said that this is a routine matter.

When we were visiting Minsk, the day before there had been an anti-Lukashenko demonstration. Our guide told us that there were a lot of people arrested for taking part in it. Even some of her friends had been arrested. We had trouble believing this, because of the big tolerance we have concerning demonstrations in our country. So much for freedom? 

Actually we would like to describe visiting Belarus as a rare change to step back in time -without using a time machine -  and observe life as it once was in the USSR.

With love

Romina

Source: http://www.fellnertravelinfo.com/belarus/index.shtml